Go behind the scenes of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with our exclusive clip. The film adaptation of Alvin Schwartz's beloved scary story collections hit theaters back in August, with André Øvredal directing from a script co-written by Guillermo del Toro (who further served as a producer). It was well-received overall, with critics praising the film for being thematically richer than similarly PG-13 horror titles, and giving it props for its nightmarish and surreal monster designs.
Scary Stories' tormented ghosts, spooky scarecrows, and limb-twisting creatures were all either based directly on or inspired by Stephen Gammell's illustrations from the books. The film's creative team made a conscious effort to hew closely to the original designs of characters like Harold and The Pale Woman in particular, relying on practical effects to bring them to life whenever possible. Unsurprisingly, del Toro was big on taking this approach, as a new featurette breaks down.
Screen Rant is exclusively debuting said Scary Stories clip today, ahead of the film's arrival on Digital tomorrow, October 22, and DVD and Blu-ray two weeks later on November 5. Take a look, below.
The video offers an up-close look at the creatures that were brought to life with prosthetics and costumes in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, with del Toro and Øvredal providing additional insight alongside designer Mike Hill and actor Kathleen Pollard (who played the vengeful ghost of Sarah Bellows in the film). As referenced earlier, del Toro is famous for using practical monster effects in his movies whenever possible, resulting in such memorable creatures as Pan from Pan's Labyrinth and the Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water. In the case of Scary Stories, the various creatures were given as much creepy detail and texture as possible, making all the freakier looking in motion.
Obviously, though, CGI had to be used sometimes, especially when it came to The Jangly Man (a ghoul that can separate and then reassemble its own body parts). Still, the monsters in Scary Stories are all pretty convincing, and the film at large is all the more successful in capturing the spirit of Schwartz's source material for them. There's no word yet on whether a Scary Stories 2 is going to happen, but the first movie was successful enough (grossing $95 million at the worldwide box office on a $25-30 million budget) to warrant a followup. Hopefully, if it does, it will stick with its predecessor's practical-driven methods.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark releases on Digital on Tuesday, October 22, and premieres on DVD and Blu-ray two weeks later on November 5.